Thebombing ofNuremberg was a series ofair raids carried out by allied forces of theRoyal Air Force (RAF) and theUnited States Army Air Forces (USAAF). It caused heavy damage throughout the city from 1940 through 1945.Nuremberg was a favored point of attack for allied bombers because it was a strong economic and infrastructural hub. It also had symbolic importance as the "City of theNuremberg Rally".
The greatest damage was inflicted on 2 January 1945 when 521 RAF bombers dropped 6,000high-explosive bombs and one millionincendiary devices. More than 1,800 died and 100,000 people lost their homes. Nuremberg'sold town was almost completely destroyed, and the city as a whole was badly damaged. AfterWürzburg, Nuremberg was one ofBavaria's cities that suffered the most damage in the war and was one of the most devastated cities in Germany.[1]
The eastern half of the city (north of thePegnitz river) was known as thesteppe after the destruction and during the clearing of the rubble. The air raids ceased on 11 April 1945. On 20 April, after theBattle of Nuremberg, the city was occupied by units of the7th US Army.
Nuremberg was an important production location for armaments and the densely populated medieval old town was a well-suited destination for the purposes of thearea bombing directive of theRoyal Air Force (RAF). The attacks would have considerable symbolic effect because Nuremberg was officially nicknamed "City of theNuremberg Rally" during the Nazi era.
Its inner city had a high proportion of half-timbered houses especially vulnerable to the combination ofexplosive andincendiary bombs. The purpose was to ignite afirestorm to increase the effect of this weaponry. Daytime attacks on industrial and infrastructure targets were mostly carried out by the technically better equippedUS Army Air Forces as part of the division of labor of the Allied air fleets in order to achieve a high degree of accuracy, which was technologically only possible to a limited extent. Nighttime bombardments were mostly flown by the RAF'sPathfinder Force.[1]
The city's old town was most severely affected by the attack of 2 January 1945. Its urban surrounds had numerous military targets.[1] The factories ofMAN in the south of the city built diesel engines for submarines and components forPanther tanks. Other important companies wereSiemens-Schuckert,TeKaDe [de],Nüral (Nürnberger Aluminiumwerke, now Federal-Mogul), andDiehl. In addition the bombers targeted the Nuremberg motorcycle industry (Zündapp/Neumeyer,Hercules,Triumph,Victoria) and 120 other armament and companies that employedforced labor as well as the facilities of the GermanReichsbahn: the marshaling yard in the south of the city and the main railway lines running over Nuremberg.[2]
Until 1942, there were only minor attacks. From 1942 to 1944 there was a fight for air supremacy over Germany which was won by the Allies in large parts. From autumn 1944, airfields of the Allies had moved close enough that it was possible to deploy low-flying aircraft. The following table is based on the information provided byG. W. Schramm.[3]
| Date | Aircraft | Bomb load(t) | Description of the air raid | Casualties and damages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | ||||
| 7 August | Bombs onFürth/Burgfarrnbach | |||
| 20/21 December | Bombs onNazi party rally grounds | |||
| 1941 | ||||
| 12/13 October | 152 RAF bombers, esp.Wellington andWhitley | Only 20 high-explosive and 14 incendiary devices hit target; minor damage to Nuremberg but severe damage toSchwabach | 9 casualties; 50 destroyed houses in Schwabach | |
| 1942 | ||||
| 28/29 August | RAF bombers | South-west of the city park and the southern city, Alte Kongresshalle/Luitpoldhalle in theLuitpoldarena, dieNuremberg castle | 136 casualties; 152 destroyed houses, 220 fires | |
| thereafter | 4 air raid warnings | |||
| 1943 | ||||
| 25/26 February | 337 four-engined RAF bombers | Due to low visibility bombs were dropped on the surroundingKnoblauchsland, northern parts of the city, theDynamit AG plant in Stadeln/Fürth and the fortified church in Kraftshof | 27 casualties; 44 large, 8 medium and 10 minor fires | |
| 8/9 March starting 11:00 p.m. | 335 four-engined RAF bombers | 358 t high-explosive, 412 t incendiary bombs | Southern old town: Mauthalle; Nuremberg Castle, Siemens-Trafowerk, marshaling yard | 343 casualties; 171 large, 339 minor and 1746 minor fires; time-bombs |
| 10/11 August 00:48 | 653 four-engined RAF bombersF:Lancaster,Stirling,Halifax | 878 t high-explosive, 878 t incendiary bombs | North, southern old town, Wöhrd;St. Sebald,St. Lorenz; u. a.Germanisches Nationalmuseum, the last remaining hop hall on theKornmarkt.Fürth, Fischbach andFeucht | 585 casualties; 1732 destroyed, 1156 severely damaged 2386 moderately damaged buildings |
| 27/28 August | 674 four-engined RAF bombers | Darkness, strong flak and night fighters disturbed the target approach, many bombs fell on southern suburbs. In Nuremberg: Maxfeld, Nordostbahnhof, southern old town, Laufamholz; the companies Neumeyer and MAN | 56 casualties; 458 destroyed, 361 moderately damaged buildings and 1704 with minor damages | |
| 1944 | ||||
| 25 February 12:47 p.m. | 172 USAAFLiberator | Target wasFürther Flugzeugwerk Bachmann von Blumenthal & Co. | 138 casualties, 122 injured | |
| 31 March | 795 RAF bombers: 572 Lancaster, 214 Halifax, 9Mosquitos | 910 t high-explosive, 1176 t incendiary bombs | "The Nuremberg Raid": The attackers suffered heavy losses: 95 bombers were shot down. In Nuremberg the attack was classified as "moderately severe", further damage in the eastern neighboring towns (Röthenbach an der Pegnitz, Behringersdorf,Lauf an der Pegnitz). | In Nuremberg: 74 casualties and 122 injured; 130 destroyed, 879 moderately damaged buildings and 2505 with minor damages |
| 10 April 10:48 a.m. | 233 B-17G and 241 USAAF escort fighter planes | Fürth, Nürnberger armament companies: MAN, TEKADE | 82 casualties, 366 injured; 211 destroyed, 214 severely damaged, 1365 moderately damaged buildings and 1800 with minor damages | |
| 13 air raid warnings | ||||
| 3 October 11:15 a.m. | 454 USAAFB-17 | Targeted were the MAN facilities but low visibility due to clouds. Instead hit by the bombs: Weinstadel, Viatishaus, 62 Patrician houses | 353 casualties, 1033 injured; 518 destroyed, 738 severely damaged, 1097 moderately damaged buildings and 4109 with minor damages | |
| 19/20 October | 263 RAF Lancaster and 7 Mosquitos | Southern city and old town. Gustav-Adolf church, MAN, Siemens, marshaling yard | 237 casualties, 10,383 shelterless | |
| 62 air raid warnings | ||||
| 25/26 November | RAF Mosquitos | Small interference attack, one train and multiple houses hit | over 60 casualties | |
| until 24 December | RAF Mosquitos | Small interference attacks; dubbed "Mosquitos on siren tours" in Britain | ||
| 1945 | ||||
| 2 Januar, evening | 514 RAF Lancaster and 7 Mosquitos | 1825 t high-explosive, 479 t incendiary bombs | Complete destruction of the Nuremberg old town with irrecoverable damage to the historic building structure. Attacks on MAN, TEKADE, Nüral, Nürnberger Schraubenfabrik | 1835 casualties,[4] over 3000 injured, 100,000 shelterless; 4553 destroyed, 2047 severely damaged, 2993 moderately damaged buildings and 7000 with minor damages; 1 conflagration and 2 block fire, 1194 major, 851 medium and 1070 small fires |
| January and February | RAF Mosquitos | Small interference attacks | ||
| 20 February 12:30 p.m. | 831 USAAF B-17 and 360 B-24 | Already on the approach, the B-24 had to turn around because of thunderstorms. Because of cloud cover over the target the bombs were thrown blind and distributed over the whole city; accumulations at railway facilities and in the southern part of town. | see below | |
| 21 February 10:40 a.m. | 1205 USAAF bombers | Targeted were the main station and marshaling yards, but Gostenhof and St. Johannis were also hit. | 1356 casualties and 70,000 shelterless | |
| February/March | 2 interference attacks | |||
| 16 March 8:53 p.m. | 301 RAF Lancaster und 40 Mosquitos | Severe damages in the southern part of the city: Steinbühl and Galgenhof, St. Peter, Gostenhof; Muggenhof, Thon, Schnepfenreuth and Poppenreuth | 517 casualties | |
| 19 March | Störangriffe | |||
| 5 April | 254 USAAF B-17 | Targeted were the main station and marshaling yards, but mostly hit were southern residential areas | see below | |
| 5 April | 72 USAAF B-17 | Fürth and Unterschlauersbach air base | 197 casualties | |
| 8 April | 89 USAAF B-24 | Targeted was the Bachmann von Blumenthal & Co. air plane factory in Fürth | ||
| 5–10 April | Low-flying aircraft | Rail transports, anti-aircraft positions around Zollhaus, railroad repair plant in Gostenhof | ||
| 11 April, afternoon | 143 RAF bombers | Marshaling yards and surrounding residential areas | 74 casualties |
Nuremberg's old town was largely destroyed. The southern parts of the city, St Johannis and other neighbourhoods were also hit hard. AfterCologne,Dortmund andKassel, Nuremberg had the largest amount of rubble per inhabitant among the major German cities.[5] The population of Nuremberg decreased from 420,349 in 1939 to 195,000 by the end of the war. Half of its dwellings were destroyed, and many others were damaged.
In 1947, ideas for reconstruction were collected in an urban planning competition. The Board of Trustees for the Reconstruction of Nuremberg (Kuratorium für den Wiederaufbau Nürnbergs) advised the city administration on questions of reconstruction. A simplified reconstruction was agreed upon.[6]
It was at this time that the organisationOld Town Friends Nuremberg (Altstadtfreunde Nürnberg) was set up to advocate a faithful, accurate reconstruction of the old town. The association supports thepreservation andrestoration of the existing historical old town houses and other architectural monuments inNuremberg that are worth preserving.[7]
By 1955 most of the reconstruction work had been completed or at least begun. From 1956 to 1960 the Nuremberg Town Hall (Wolffscher Bau andRathaussaalbau) was rebuilt. Until 1957 theSt Sebaldus church was repaired. The largest restoration project was thecity walls of Nuremberg with its 4-kilometre-long (2.5 mi) double wall and the moat.[8]
TheKatharinenkloster Nuremberg, today calledKatherinenruine, which was completely destroyed during the air raids in 1945, was not rebuilt but secured as a ruin in 1970/71. Since then it has served as a memorial to the war and as a venue for events.[9]
Since the end of the war,unexploded bombs have been, and continue to be, found in Nuremberg, as throughout Germany. They are often discovered by chance. The explosive ordnance clearance service (Kampfmittelräumdienst) is responsible for defusing aircraft bombs, sometimes ordering large-scale evacuations before doing so.